Portrait of the Week – 12 July 2003

Tony Blair insisted that weapons of mass destruction will still be found in Iraq, even though none has been discovered yet. A committee of MPs acquitted Mr Blair’s right-hand man, Alastair Campbell, of ‘sexing up’ a dossier about such weapons published in September 2002, but the committee said the claim that the weapons could be used within 45 minutes had been given undue prominence. It also said that Mr Blair had ‘inadvertently made a bad situation worse’ by misrepresenting the contents of the ‘dodgy dossier’ presented to Parliament in February 2003. The BBC, which reported the ‘sexing up’ allegation, turned down Mr Campbell’s demands for an apology. The government announced plans to widen various roads. Its majority was cut to 35 when 62 Labour MPs voted against foundation hospitals. Mr Blair appealed to his MPs for unity. Three Kurds on their way to pick spring onions in a field in Worcestershire were killed when the minibus carrying them was hit by a train at a level-crossing.